Deadline for psychiatric reports in Mario Deane case extended

WESTERN BUREAU:

The St James Circuit Court yesterday set November 25 as the next mention date for the case against Marvin Orr and Adrian Morgan, the inmates charged in relation to the 2014 death of Mario Deane. It was done to facilitate the full submission of the men’s outstanding forensic psychiatric reports.

The decision was taken by High Court Justice Glen Brown after prosecutor Maxine Jackson revealed that some of the documents, which had previously been requested by the court, had not yet been submitted.

“We have substantially satisfied 75 per cent of the request (for the outstanding information) and we are asking for November 25 for continuation,” Jackson told Brown.

Following Jackson’s submission, Brown gave the new mention date and ordered that Orr and Morgan be remanded. The men were not present in court as they are in police custody in Trelawny.

During a previous court sitting on September 18, the court requested the treatment information for Orr and Morgan, who both suffer from mental disorders. The request was made following the revelation that Dr Myo Kyaw Oo, the only doctor in Jamaica who is licenced to do forensic psychiatric reports, wanted the information to prepare full reports for the defendants.

Subpoenas were previously issued during a sitting of the St James Circuit Court last September, for the doctors who had written psychiatric reports for Orr and Morgan to attend court. The subpoenas were issued at that time because the defendants’ lawyers did not believe that the reports adequately addressed specific questions about the men’s mental state.

Mario Deane was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014, while in custody at the Barnett Street Police Station, in Montego Bay, for possession of a ganja spliff. Deane died three days later at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

Orr and Morgan, who were also in custody at the Barnett Street lock-up at the time, were later arrested and charged, along with a third inmate, Damion Cargill. In July 2017, Cargill was judged unfit to stand trial and was released into his family’s care.